LETTER: Health care out of control

In Cache County, public sector employers will spend over $120 million in 2025 on employee medical insurance premiums. Taxpayers will spend $2,800 annually in taxes across the 43k households in Cache County. Factor these numbers across the entire state of Utah and taxpayers will spend close to $3 billion in 2025, just for medical insurance premiums.

Now, put this data into context as public entities grapple with truth and taxation hearings. Citizens have a right to be upset and to question increased taxes. I’m one of them. But let’s understand where our money is going. In my short two years of public service on the school board, healthcare is one of our most significant challenges. We are handcuffed to spiraling, out of control healthcare. Is it morally acceptable for a healthcare system to charge $24k/year for a schoolteacher to receive medical insurance for a high-deductible family premium, or $33k/year for our police officers and firefighters? No. We should be putting more money in public servant’s pockets in the form of wages rather than padding revenues of healthcare providers and carriers.

Google AI calculates that the average high-deductible family medical insurance premium in the US is $22,404 per year. Add $8,000 for the family deductible and the $2,800 we each pay in taxes for our public sector employee premiums, and we’re dishing out a total of $33,204 a year ($2,767 every month) just to cover medical insurance. In Cache County, that number is as high as $45k/year ($3,750/month) for some groups! How can we be ok with this? I’m not nearly as concerned about $6 per dozen eggs, $4/gallon gas, a beef shortage, or my power bill increasing by a few dollars a month. A correction in healthcare would significantly improve housing affordability and cover the cost for our kids to further their education.

Our federal government has been shut down primarily because of a debate over healthcare subsidies with the ACA / Obamacare. There is consensus around rising healthcare costs being negatively impacted by the ACA. However, there are clear concerns around healthcare that aren’t impacted by the ACA; lack of competition, corporate revenue growth directives, commission and incentive drivers, exorbitant prices for procedures in hospitals, inflated Rx pricing & rebate manipulation, poor preventative care services, little focus on reference-based pricing, lack of full transparency with billing and claims data, consumer ignorance, and general apathy towards healthcare cost drivers.

I value the great work that happens within our hospitals and doctor’s offices. But we have a broken healthcare system, beyond the ACA challenges, that needs urgent correction. Accountability is required across many fronts. It’s time for change.

Brian Chambers

President / Owner, Ensign Recruiting

Cache County School Board of Education